[Stuart]

I'm a happy customer. The service generally provides what I pay for (a fairly reliable 50 meg BB and Tivo is good).

Where Virgin Media do sometimes let themselves down is that it can be infuriating trying to get something fixed, and their installations do (sometimes) leave something to be desired.

I have suffered long waiting times for an answer to my support calls, but this seems to be part and parcel of dealing with call centres (no offence meant to those who work in them), and I can honestly say that while VM can take a while to put you through to an operator, they are far better than other companies (BT, Nationwide and Npower spring to mind).

When dealing with technicians, I've had a couple of bad experiences with VM (one who ripped out the wiring for my AV System to wire in box, and the guy who fitted my Tivo who left over half an hour before the service came on line), but that's par for the course dealing with large companies as well. When they replaced my master socket, BT put it in the wrong place (after I repeatedly pointed out the right place) and charged me £110 for the privilege.

While inspecting my water main, the guy from Thames Water told me off for having my water main in the same ducting as the outflow from the waste system. All of which were put in by Thames Water. When "repairing" the main, they tarmaced over the bit of my drive they dug up, without actually replacing the concrete under the tarmac. A fact demonstrated to me when an engineer from the council pushed a screwdriver through the tarmac and it went straight through. Thankfully, no one had driven or walked on it. Also thankfully, the council engineer said that they'd done it all over the borough so the council offered to repair the damage for free.

This is a long winded post, but the point is that VM don't always get things right, and they certainly aren't the only company that doesn't get it right all the time.

When it does go well though, the service is brilliant.